Pluralism or Dittophobia?

Late to the ball as usual, but anyone else think this lede was massively misleading?

President Obama warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration.

“You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done,” he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.

Obviously, I wasn’t there to hear how this was said, but isn’t “just” the key word here? As in “you have to be open to lots of different perspectives?” Parsed that way, it just sounds like a pretty conventional bit of “post-partisan” Obama rhetoric. Much of which I think is somewhat disingenuous, but that seems like the fair reading.

1 response so far ↓

That seems like the most likely intended meaning, but on the other hand, “can’t just” is often used to mean “can’t,” with the implication that the person being addressed is being chastised for their presumption or chutzpah. (“You can’t just walk in here and expect me to accept your demands!”) That wouldn’t really fit with Obama’s usual style, though, so I agree that your interpretation is more likely the correct one.